Collapsible shelter



1970 w. BALLAS 3,

COLLAPS IBLE SHELTER Filed March 13, 1969 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTOR WILLIAM BALLAS ATTORNEYS Oct. 20, 1970 w. BALLAS 3,534,512

COLLAPSIBLE SHELTER Filed March 15, 1969 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 5 INVENTOR WILLIAM BALLAS BY gld/w, AZwWjM ATTORNEYS United States Patent 3,534,512 COLLAPSIBLE SHELTER William Ballas, 8037 Winona, Allen Park, Mich. 48101 Filed Mar. 13, 1969, Ser. No. 807,006 Int. Cl. E04b 1/344; E04h 6/02 US. Cl. 52-67 7 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A collapsible open ended shelter adapted for connection to an apertured building wall which includes a hollow channel frame of inverted U-shape, and accordion foldable side and top walls, each wall including a series of panels hinged edge to edge with the top wall panels flexibly interconnected with the side wall panels so as to simultaneously collapse in accordion fashion Within the said frame; said side wall panels being movably mounted upon the ground surface for manual opening outwardly of said frame.

Heretofore, various collapsible building structures have been provided of an involved structure collapsible for purposes of portability and/or for storage.

It is an object of the present invention to provide an improved open ended shelter which includes a pair of accordion foldable side walls and an accordion foldable top wall all flexibly interconnected and adapted for folding and collapsing simultaneously.

It is another object to provide a collapsible shelter wherein the walls thereof consist of uniform panels hingedly interconnected at their edges and wherein, top Wall panels are flexibly and pivotally interconnected with the side wall panels in such manner that collapse movement of the side wall panels into a transverse parallel engaging relation causes a simultaneous and corresponding accordion collapse movement of the top wall panels.

It is another object to provide a simply constructed open ended shelter consisting of collapsible side and top walls which structure may be applied to the aperture within a wall of a building for providing additional shelter and communication therewith.

These and other objects will be seen from the following specification and claims in conjunction with the appended drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the present collapsible shelter applied to a building wall.

FIG. 2 is a fragmentary view similar to FIG. 1 showing the shelter partly collapsed.

FIG. 3 is a similar view showing the shelter completely collapsed into storage position.

FIG. 4 is a fragmentary section on an increased scale taken in the direction of arrows 44 of FIG. 3.

FIG. 5 is a similar view taken in the direction of arrows 55 of FIG. 3.

FIG. 6 is a fragmentary schematic perspective view illustrating the connections between the side wall and top wall panels when the same are partly collapsed.

FIG. 7 is a fragmentary section taken in the direction of arrows 77 of FIG. 6.

FIG. 8 is a fragmentary perspective view of portion of a side wall illustrating the castor mounting therefor.

FIG. 9 is a fragmentary perspective view of the side wall end panels and the draw bar therefor.

FIG. 10 is a fragmentary perspective view illustrating the locking of the outer end wall panel when fully extended.

Referring to the drawings, the present collapsible open ended shelter may be adapted for use in conjunction with any suitable anchoring means such as a building 11, FIG. 1, which may be a house or a garage, for illustration, and

which includes a wall 12 apertured at 13, FIG. 5, and in the case of a garage having a closure or door 14, FIG. 3.

In the case of a garage, for illustration, though not limited thereto, an apron 15 fiagmentarily shown in FIG. 10 may be a construction such as would normally lead to a garage or be a portion of a patio for a building, and over which the present shelter is movably positioned from the storage position of FIG. 3 to the open use position, FIG. 1.

Mounted upon building wall 12 around its aperture 13 is an inverted U-shaped frame 16 which is of channel form as shown in FIGS. 4 and 5.

Said channel frame is suitably anchored to the building wall 12 as at 17, FIG. 1, and projecting therefrom as shown in FIG. 1, is the present open ended collapsible shelter generally indicated at 18 as shown in its use position with its respective open ends in communication with the building wall opening 13.

Said shelter includes a pair of upright accordion collapsible side walls 19 and horizontally disposed accordion collapsible top wall 20.

Side walls 19 include a plurality of unit elongated side panels 21 which are hinged to each other at 22 along their corresponding outer edges. The inner end panel 21 is nested within the channel frame 16, FIG. 5, and aflixed thereto by suitable fasteners 23.

Mounted upon lower ends of some of the side wall panels 21 are a series of conventional sockets 24 within which are removably mounted the castors 25 adapted to bear upon the ground surface 15 as shown in FIG. 10 or adapted to be guidably moved within corresponding channels 35 nested down into the ground surface or apron 15 for guiding the opening and closing movements of the respective side wall panels as the panel is collapsed from the position shown in FIG. 1 to the enclosed position in FIG. 3.

Corresponding top wall includes an additional series of similar elongated rectangular top wall panels 26 also hingedly interconnected along their longitudinal edges at 22.

The respective ends of the top wall panels 26 extend to and are flexibly and pivotally connected to corresponding outer edge portions of adjacent side wall panels 21 for simultaneous collapsing in the manner ilustrated in FIG. 6.

For this purpose as shown in detail in FIG. 7, brackets 27 and 28 extending from the respective outer ends of the side wall and top wall panels are pivotally intercon nected as at 29 forming a flexible hinged connection.

The pivotal connection is of such flexible character and the panel widths are of such dimension that as the respective side wall panels collapse into a position transverse to the position shown in FIG. 1, such as shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, while moving towards parallel engaging relation, the respective top wall panels 26 are also simultaneously folded in accordion fashion into parallel engaging relation.

An intermediate position of collapse is shown in FIG. 2 and a final collapsed storage position is shown in FIG. 3 wherein all of the parallel engaging side wall panels and top wall panels are completely nested and stored within the channel frame 16. As shown in FIG. 9 mounted upon the outer of the side wall panels are a pair of generally U.shaped handles 30. The telescoping or otherwise flexible draw bar 31 at its ends pivotally connects at 32 the respective handles providing a means by which the side walls may be either collapsed from the fully open position or opened up from the fully closed position.

As shown in FIGS. 3 and 10, sockets 33 formed within the apron or ground surface 15 and are adapted to removably receive the reciprocal draw bar or locking bars 34 mounted upon the outermost of the respective side Wall panels providing a means by which as in FIGS. 1 and shelter may be retained in its use position and in FIG. 3 retained in its collapsed storage position.

It is contemplated as a part of the present invention that with the assistance of the castors 25, depending from some of the side wall panels and with the use of the draw bar 31 which is removable the structure may be manually opened from the storage position of FIG. 3 to the use position of FIG. 1 or vice-versa.

It is contemplated, furthermore, that the opening and closing collapse movements of the panels can be assisted by the employment of channel tracks 35, part of which is shown in FIG. 9 mounted down into the ground surface or apron to guidably reeceive the respective castors 25 and to assure a straight line collapsing opening and closing movement of the respective side wall panels.

Having described my invention, reference should now be had to the following claims.

I claim:

1. A collapsible open-ended shelter comprising a pair of spaced accordion foldable side walls and an accordion foldable top wall at its ends overlying and flexibly and pivotally connected to the side walls;

said walls each including a series of elongated panels;

hinges interconnecting said panels along their edges;

means anchoring the corresponding panel at the one ends of said walls;

said panels being coplanar when open and in transverse parallel engaging relation when accordion collapsed; casters swivelly mounted at the lower ends of said side panels engageable with the ground surface;

and pivot means interconnecting the outer hinged edgs of an adjacent pair of top panels at their ends with the corresponding outer hinged edges of an adjacent pair of side panels at their upper ends, whereby the top panels foldably collapse simultaneously with said side panels.

2. In the shelter of claim 1, the anchoring means for said wall end panels including an apertured building wall;

said end panels bearing against said wall on the sides of its aperture and across the top thereof;

and fasteners interconnecting said end panels and building walls.

3. In the shelter of claim 1, the anchoring means for said wall end panels including an apertured building wall; an inverted U-shaped frame of channel form in cross section bearing against said building wall on the sides of its aperture and across the top thereof;

said end panels of said side and top walls snugly nested within said channel frame in a plane parallel to said building wall;

and fasteners securing said end panels to said frame.

4. In the shelter of claim 3, said side and top wall panels when collapsed being nested entirely within said frame.

5. In the shelter of claim 3, retractible locking bars mounted upon the outer of the side wall end panels adapted for interlock within corresponding apertures down into the ground surface, for retaining the walls in expanded use position.

6. In the shelter of claim 3, a horizontally disposed draw bar spanning and flexibly connected at its ends to the side wall outer end panels to facilitate opening and collapse closing of said shelter walls.

7. In the shelter of claim 3, a pair of parallel channel tracks in said ground surface extending in the direction of and underlying said side walls;

said casters movably guided within said tracks.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,257,153 9/1941 Blaski 52-79 XR 2,852,814 9/1958 Bignardi 52-67 3,092,126 6/1963 Smith 5 3,155,419 11/1964 Garson et al. 52-71 XR 3,407,546 10/1968 Yates et a1 52-64 XR 3,443,344 5/1969 Williams 5264 XR 3,461,627 8/1969 Conger 52173 XR PRICE C. FAW, 111., Primary Examiner US, Cl. X.R. 

